Geez I forgot the game even had this functionality. That's really impressive scaling for an extremely early (one of the first?) multi-threaded game.

I too have a dual Tualatin system, however I have one with the Apollo Pro 266T and DDR memory, so I think it would be interesting to see how it performs. I'll definitely look into doing it, but I have to re-install a 2nd Tualatin in there and I'm currently running some other projects 🙁.

Impressive scaling but i don't have the dual tualatin to test. >.<

Reputator wrote:

Geez I forgot the game even had this functionality. That's really impressive scaling for an extremely early (one of the first?) multi-threaded game.

Its a nice boost for sure. 17% is not that good, but I was amazed at the results from the 6800.

F2bnp wrote:

I too have a dual Tualatin system, however I have one with the Apollo Pro 266T and DDR memory, so I think it would be interesting to see how it performs. I'll definitely look into doing it, but I have to re-install a 2nd Tualatin in there and I'm currently running some other projects 🙁.

It would be nice to have more people testing, specially on different platforms. If you have some Coppermines you can also go that route, so you dont need to disassemble anything using the Tualatins.

MordekaiZeyo wrote:

Impressive scaling but i don't have the dual tualatin to test. >.<

Thanks for the comment anyway! Its nice to see people interested 😀

Note to self, test with my BX based Duel P3 600 Katmai and Ti4600 in about 2 weeks!
I can also test with Voodoo 3 2000 PCI, Voodoo 2 SLI, GeForce 2 MX if they are of any interest? Quake's not really my area

chinny22 wrote:

Note to self, test with my BX based Duel P3 600 Katmai and Ti4600 in about 2 weeks!
I can also test with Voodoo 3 2000 PCI, Voodoo 2 SLI, GeForce 2 MX if they are of any interest? Quake's not really my area

Hell yeah! Dual Katmai sounds awesome and would be a nice result to have. Contrasting a v3 2000 with a v2 sli would be icing on the cake, too!

Just tried with my Compaq AP550, dual P3 coopermine 1000MHz EB. It seem that it it won't work with ATI cards. It crash at start screen with an ATI 7500 (rare HP alphaserver card, maybe cause of that?). I'll try with a TNT2 and a ATI FireGL Z1, and maybe a GF4 MX4000 when i have time.

KingPing wrote:

Just tried with my Compaq AP550, dual P3 coopermine 1000MHz EB. It seem that it it won't work with ATI cards. It crash at start screen with an ATI 7500 (rare HP alphaserver card, maybe cause of that?). I'll try with a TNT2 and a ATI FireGL Z1, and maybe a GF4 MX4000 when i have time.

Yeah, I had trouble with the Radeon 9100 (R200 based), but the 9800 worked fine. On the nVidia side, I could not get a GeForce2 Ultra to work, but from GeForce3 onwards its smooth sailing. Tell us how it oges with the TNT2!

Test rig: 2x1Ghz P3 Coopermine EB, 512MB RDRAM dual channel, Aureal Vortex 2, Compaq Mobo i840 based, XP Sp3, Q3A v1.32, demo four.DM_68

ATI FireGL Z1 128MB (based on ATI 9700Pro)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 93fps <-- for comparison: 222 fps with Athlon XP2600+, 1GB DDR dual channel, XP Sp3
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.7fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 99.5fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 111.5fps

ATI 7500 PCI (HP alphaserver card, GPU=290, RAM=230)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 81,6fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 98.3fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

TNT2 (ELSA Synergy 2 32MB)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 27.2fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 90.3fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

Voodoo4 4500
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 33.7fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 77.3fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

Geforce 4 MX4000
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 60.2fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.5fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

posting in this thread for future reference.

KingPing wrote:

Test rig: 2x1Ghz P3 Coopermine EB, 512MB RDRAM dual channel, Aureal Vortex 2, Compaq Mobo i840 based, XP Sp3, Q3A v1.32, demo fo […]
Show full quote

Test rig: 2x1Ghz P3 Coopermine EB, 512MB RDRAM dual channel, Aureal Vortex 2, Compaq Mobo i840 based, XP Sp3, Q3A v1.32, demo four.DM_68

ATI FireGL Z1 128MB (based on ATI 9700Pro)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 93fps <-- for comparison: 222 fps with Athlon XP2600+, 1GB DDR dual channel, XP Sp3
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.7fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 99.5fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 111.5fps

ATI 7500 PCI (HP alphaserver card, GPU=290, RAM=230)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 81,6fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 98.3fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

TNT2 (ELSA Synergy 2 32MB)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 27.2fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 90.3fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

Voodoo4 4500
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 33.7fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 77.3fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

Geforce 4 MX4000
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 60.2fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.5fps
r_smp 1 CRASH ON START SCREEN

Nice!

Interesting that the GF4 failed, possibly because its based on a reworked GF2 core? I'll take a swing and say anything lower than NV20 (GF3) will not work on the NVIDIA side. The cutoff for ATI seems to be somewhere below R300, since your FireGL Z1 worked, but my Radeon 9100 failed.

EDIT: you are launching Q3A via modified shortcut, right? Otherwise the crashes may be just inconsistent launching and we cannot make any conclusions about which cards work and which don't.

If i use the modified shortcut the game crash with all cards even then FireGL Z1.

This works: "C:\PROGRA~1\QUAKEI~1\QUAKE3.EXE" +set r_smp 0
This DON't work, game crash at start screen: "C:\PROGRA~1\QUAKEI~1\QUAKE3.EXE" +set r_smp 1

this: cmd.exe /c start /realtime "C:\PROGRA~1\QUAKEI~1\QUAKE3.EXE" +set r_smp 1, don't work, it says ERROR, windows can't find the '+set' file.

The only way it works for me is if i set the command trough the game console.

What did you put in the shortcut target?

That's weird. I use

cmd.exe /c start /realtime "C:\path\to\quake3\quake3.exe" +set r_smp 1 +set timedemo 1

and it works flawlessly. That error you are getting, windows complaining about not finding "+set", sounds like you are not putting the quotation marks around the path. I think it happened to me once or twice.

I also have another shortcut with everything the same except r_smp 0 to launch without SMP.

It finally works! i only had to Reinstall XP 😵

So i tested 2 cards so far, the ATI FireGL Z1 using the standard profile and the "OpenGL GAMES" profile (there are a bunch of profiles in the ATI driver for CAD, 3Dmax, etc.), and the ATI 7500 PCI. I'll test more cards later.

Target in shortcut: cmd.exe /c start /realtime "C:\path\to\quake3\quake3.exe" +set r_smp 1
OR
cmd.exe /c start /realtime "C:\path\to\quake3\quake3.exe" +set r_smp 0

ATI FireGL Z1 (standard profile) (same fps as before)
Driver: ATI FireGL/Pro/MV Software Suite 8.583
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 92.5fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 99.6fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 111.5fps

ATI FireGL Z1 (Open GL GAMES profile)
Driver: ATI FireGL/Pro/MV Software Suite 8.583
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 93fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.1fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 114.7fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 123.1fps

ATI 7500 PCI (HP alphaserver card, GPU=290, RAM=230) (IT WORKS WITH SMP ENABLE! 😀 )
Driver: Catalyst™ 6.11 Display Driver for Windows XP Professional/Home Edition
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 81,6fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 98.3fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 95.3fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.7fps

Sweet! I'll check my Radeon 9100 with the 6.11 catalysts you used and see if I manage to get it working!

So, I actually managed to get it working with the 9100! No need to try different drivers either, I used the same 5.8 Catalysts I was using.

It turns out the shortcut trick is not infallible, in particular, if I run with r_smp 0 first and then attempt to run r_smp 1, it will crash no matter what. If, from a fresh boot, I run with r_smp 1 first, it will run no problem.

I updated the first post with the 9100 info.

slivercr wrote:

if I run with r_smp 0 first and then attempt to run r_smp 1, it will crash no matter what. If, from a fresh boot, I run with r_smp 1 first, it will run no problem.

Yep, i notice it too after a while, if smp 1 is run first it starts OK always.

Now all cards work with SMP enable! 😊

Voodoo4 4500
Driver: AmigaMerlin V3.1 R11 (DX8 mode)
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 33.7fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 77.3fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 33.3fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 122.9fps

ELSA Synergy II (TNT2)
Driver: forceware 61.73 WinXP2K
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 27.2fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 90.6fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 26.7fps
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 124fps

GF4 MX4000
Driver: forceware 93.71 WinXP2K
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 60.3fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 109.7fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 51.9fps (Yeah it's actually slower when SMP is enable 😢 , i triple cheked just to be sure)
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 107.4fps

Matrox Millenium G400 MAX Dualhead
Driver: XP2K 596 004
r_smp 0 ULTRA 1024x768 = 13.7fps
r_smp 0 FASTEST 640x480 = 89.6fps
r_smp 1 ULTRA 1024x768 = 11.3fps (Once it did 35fps but couldn't replicate it, after that it was always between 11 and 13 fps 😕 )
r_smp 1 FASTEST 640x480 = 108.1fps

So, I did some more tests with the ASUS v9999GE (GeForce 6800). The specs of my system are the following;

2x P3-S 1400
OR840 motherboard (i840)
Audigy2 Zs
Promise SATA300 TX2 controller, 2 SSDs plugged in.
Windows XP Pro, SP3
ForceWare 93.71, settings left to default

I am using q3a 1.32c and 4 different graphical settings: q3a's "Normal" setting, 1024x768 with everything on Highest, 720p with everything on highest, and 1080p with everything on highest. For resolutions with 16:9 aspect ratio, the FOV was adjusted to mimic the default 90 of 4:3 resolutions using the info on this page.

The first chart shows the FPS at each resolution with/without SMP enabled, the second one quantifies the increase in FPS in each case. There's a change of only 13fps in going from 800x600 to 1080p—impressive! During the weekend I'll run similar tests with other cards and see how they behave.

EDIT: added details about my system so this is a self-contained post.

Please use "0" as starting value on FPS charts, thank you.